BY J. EDWARD MORENO - 08/22/20 Maryanne Trump Barry, President Trump’s older sister, said that her brother "has no principles" in secretly recorded audio obtained by the Washington Post. In 2018, Trump suggested that Barry, who previously served as a federal judge in New York, should be placed at the border amid a wave of refugees entering the United States. The now-retired appeals court judge and Clinton appointee grumbled about his statement and criticized his actions in office in a…

Iran paid bounties to the Taliban to target US troops, according to a US intelligence assessment first reported on by CNN. The suspected bounty plot was reportedly cited by US officials as part of the justification for the drone strike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The Trump administration decided against taking a more explicit action over the alleged Iranian bounty plot in order to shield ongoing, tenuous peace talks with the Taliban. The CNN report comes after the…

Iran is reported to have paid bounties to a Taliban faction for killing US and coalition troops in Afghanistan, leading to six attacks last year including a suicide bombing at the US airbase in Bagram. According to CNN, US intelligence assessed that Iran paid the bounties to the Haqqani network, for the Bagram attack on 11 December, which killed two civilians and injured more than 70 others, including two Americans. Related: Trump views US troops as disposable – the Russian…

The administration’s escalating aggression toward Iran could be leading to a full-blown war ahead of the November election. By Bob Dreyfuss - August 13th, 2020 Donald Trump’s January 3 drone assassination of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani the first step in turning the simmering cold war between the United States and Iran into a hot war in the weeks before an American presidential election? Of course, there’s no way to know, but behind by double digits in most national polls and…

by Sina Toossi “I think Iran and [Donald] Trump are close to a win-win agreement,” veteran Iranian journalist and BBC Persian correspondent Masoud Behnoud recently tweeted on August 8. “Trump has a failed record on foreign policy and will give concessions on the eve of the election. Iran also wants rewards for its patience, especially its patience in the face of the recent explosions.” Behnoud’s striking prediction comes amid a swirl of rumors about ongoing diplomatic backchannels between the United…

By Arsalan Shahla and Golnar Motevalli - August 10, 2020 Drug won’t be sold commercially and meant for hospitals only Human trials of a home-grown vaccine to start within 2 weeks Iran says it has started distributing its generic version of Gilead Sciences Inc.’s remdesivir antiviral drug to aid the country’s fight against Covid-19. The Food and Drug Organization of Iran said last week that an “Iranian remdesivir” had been sent to university hospitals and specialist clinics, state-run Islamic Republic…

Iran Policy in Holding Pattern before Elections By Robbie Gramer and Jack Detsch Brian Hook’s abrupt departure as the Trump administration’s top Iran envoy leaves an uncertain future for the White House’s biggest Middle East policy, two years after President Donald Trump abandoned the Iran nuclear pact and proclaimed he could secure a “new and lasting deal.” Hook’s replacement, Elliott Abrams, will simultaneously continue as the administration’s envoy for Venezuela, making him responsible for two defining Trump foreign-policy initiatives—neither of…

By: Saheb Sadeghi The upcoming US presidential elections in November will likely determine whether the Iran nuclear deal survives. If Donald Trump wins re-election, Iran is likely to quit the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and alter its nuclear doctrine to give it more leverage in any future negotiations. If Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, is elected, both Iran and the United States could move towards reviving the JCPOA, but Iran will remain reluctant to expand its terms.…